NOTES AND QUERIES. 383 



company with a Common Heron on the river Blackwater. My friend did not 

 know what a rarity it was, and it was quite a chance that he had troubled 

 himself to preserve it. It is a great pity that rare birds, in cases like this, 

 should not be identified and properly preserved. — Charles Bethune 

 Horsbrugh (Richmond Hill, Bath). 



Report on Migration. — At the recent meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion, in the Zoological Section, presided over by Prof. E. B. Poulton, the 

 Report of the Committee appointed for the purpose of drawing up a digest 

 of the observations on the Migrations of Birds made at lighthouses along 

 the British coast, was submitted. The Committee, which consisted of 

 Professor Newton, Messrs. John Cordeaux, John A. Harvie-Brown, R. M. 

 Barrington, W. Eagle Clarke, and Rev. E. P. Knubley, dealt, among other 

 things, with the subject of intermigration between the south-east coast of 

 England and the coast of western Europe, and pointed out that some 

 entirely new facts had been ascertained in connection with this matter. It 

 had been already shown that the more southern section of the eastern coast of 

 England did not receive immigrants direct from northern Europe. There 

 was, however, a considerable amount of migration of a particular description, 

 and on the part of certain species, observed at the lightships and lighthouses 

 between the Kentish coast and the Wash. During the autumn, day after 

 day, a stream of migrants, often of great volume, was observed off the coast, 

 flowing chiefly from the south-east to the north-west at the more northerly 

 stations, and from east to west at the southerly ones, across the southern- 

 most waters of the North Sea. From the stations off the mouth of the 

 Thames as a centre, the birds either swept up the east coast, sometimes to 

 and beyond the Tees, many proceeding inland as they went, or passed to the 

 west along the southern shores of Englaud. These importaut immigrations 

 set in during the latter days of September, reached their maximum in 

 October, and continued at intervals uutil November. They were renewed 

 during winter on occasions of exceptionally severe cold, but the birds then 

 passed to the westward along our southern shores. The Report also dealt with 

 the meteorological aspect of the question, and stated that the importance 

 attached to winds in connection with bird migration had hitherto been much 

 overestimated. The conclusions to be drawn from a careful study of the 

 subject were that the direction of the wind had no influence whatever as an 

 incentive to migration, but that its force was certainly an importaut factor, 

 inasmuch as it might make migration an impossibility, arrest to a greater or 

 lesser degree its progress, or even blow birds out of their course. — An 

 interesting discussion followed the reading of the Report. 



Cuckoo : Mode of Feeding. — On June 13th I found a young Cuckoo 

 (Cuculus canorus) in the nest of a Meadow Pipit on Silverhowe, Grasmere, 

 Westmoreland. It was just able to fly, so I took it home and kept it for 



